Yangshao culture can be traced back to 4575 BC to around 2550 BC. Yangshao culture is famous for polishing red pottery and painted pottery, and its shapes are diverse. Handmade utensils, that is, mud slab buildings, are practical and beautiful. Painted pottery is a kind of exquisite pottery widely popular in Neolithic age in China, and it is an outstanding achievement of Yangshao culture. Most of them are handmade, and the common shapes are bowls, pots, bowls, cans, bottles and other utensils, containers, pumps and so on.
Longshan culture:
Black pottery is a precious heritage of Longshan culture in the late Neolithic period in China, and it is also a treasure of oriental pottery, represented by black pottery as thin as eggshells and black leather or black pottery products in Longshan culture.
Xia, Shang and Zhou:
Ceramic varieties in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties can be roughly divided into gray pottery, printed pottery, white pottery, red pottery and primitive pottery. Pottery in this period is still dominated by utensils, such as beans, ding, pots, enamel, enamel, enamel and so on. Among them, gray pottery is the most widely used in life. The surface of pottery is plain and clean, with simple rope patterns, basket patterns or painted patterns.
Western Zhou Dynasty, Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period:
In the mid-Shang Dynasty, primitive porcelain with kaolin as the tire and green glaze appeared. With the improvement of kiln and kiln firing technology, primitive porcelain began to flourish in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The improvement of tire burning degree and the glaze color of pottery surface make the original porcelain not absorb water and more beautiful. Primitive porcelain is generally painted with various patterns on pottery before glazing, and the glaze color is mostly turquoise and turquoise.
After the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were many kinds of pottery, including bricks, terracotta figures and architectural pottery, in addition to daily utensils.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a large number of pottery workshops appeared in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and many products were recorded. At this time, printing hard Tao Zheng was in a prosperous period. In addition, a large number of painted pottery in this period was deeply influenced by lacquerware of the same period.
The qin dynasty way:
Because Qin Shihuang spent a lot of money to build a large-scale Epang Palace and cemetery, he needed a lot of bricks, tiles and a lot of ceramic utensils for the palace. In addition, in the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties and even the Tang Dynasty, people used pottery figurines and beasts to replace living people or animals, and buried pottery with them, which made the pottery industry more prosperous, the varieties expanded and the production methods became more and more abundant.
1974 A large number of life-size pottery terracotta warriors and horses unearthed on the east side of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum are part of the funerary objects of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum. From the three pits excavated, we can see the level of pottery firing at that time. Its number is huge, just dig out a corner, there are tens of millions; Exquisite production, different expressions and vivid shapes show the exquisite skills of pottery sculpture in Qin Dynasty.
Western Han and Eastern Han Dynasties:
After the "governance of cultural scenes", the Western Han Dynasty reached its peak in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Its humanities and arts, natural sciences, handicrafts, paper industry, commerce and water conservancy all reached a prosperous period. Pottery products in Han dynasty are very prosperous in texture, variety, technology and decorative techniques. Pottery includes gray pottery, hard pottery, lead glazed pottery and so on. Decorative techniques include printing, marking, overlapping, hidden lines, painting, embossing, hollowing out and so on. The pottery and plastic products in the early Han Dynasty are similar in style to those in the Qin Dynasty, with large volume and vivid, simple and lifelike images. The Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Western Han Dynasty discovered in Xianyang, Shaanxi and Xuzhou, Jiangsu show the artistic style at that time.
The Han Dynasty is also an important turning point in the history of China ceramics. Although primitive porcelain appeared in the middle of Shang Dynasty, the real prosperity of porcelain began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The body of porcelain is made of composite materials such as clay or porcelain stone, and is fired at a high temperature of 1200- 1300 degrees Celsius. The carcass is hard, dense and thin, and does not absorb water, and then the outer surface of the carcass is glazed, and the glazed surface is smooth and does not fall off.
The jar of the Western Han Dynasty is gray pottery with a slightly restrained mouth, flat bottom, four ears and concave chords in the middle. The shoulders and abdomen are decorated with checkered patterns. The lower abdomen is decorated with three unclear carved chords. Plaid decoration is the most popular decorative pattern in Han Dynasty.
Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties:
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, celadon developed in an all-round way. At that time, the gentry used celadon as their daily necessities, and there were also special celadon funerary objects after their death. Its daily utensils include pots with two ears or four ears, as well as pots with no ears, which have many unique shapes. Celadon used for burial includes aromatherapy, lotus petal bowl, lotus cover jar, sheep statue and barn jar.
In the late Northern and Southern Dynasties, Buddhism went deep into China. No matter in the north or the south, the design of porcelain is decorated with lotus flowers, and the static color of celadon is very suitable for the Buddhist ideal of getting rid of worldly dust, so its firing is enduring and becoming more and more popular. In addition to celadon, white porcelain was also developed in the North during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and its tire mud was stricter and more detailed than celadon. Gray glaze is also used, but the glaze layer is thin and milky white.
Sui and Tang dynasties:
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, China's ancient politics, economy, culture and commercial trade flourished unprecedentedly, which promoted the progress of porcelain industry and the expansion of porcelain market, forming a pattern of "blue in the south and white in the north". The south mainly produces celadon, and Yue Kiln is the most typical one. Porcelain tires are light and dense, and the glaze layer is crystal clear and delicate, which has made great achievements in porcelain art. The white porcelain in Yao Xing in the Tang Dynasty is the representative of the so-called "Northern White". The whiteness of porcelain body and glaze is very high, and the porcelain body is solid and dense, giving off the sound of stone. In the middle and late Tang dynasty, the firing of blue and white porcelain was further matured, and black, yellow, floral porcelain and twisted porcelain were successfully fired. The appearance of colored porcelain represented by Changsha kiln in Tang Dynasty and blue and white in Tang Dynasty broke the relatively single competition pattern of "Southern Blue and White". From the late Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties, famous kilns began to appear in the history of China porcelain.
Song dynasty:
Song Dynasty is the third prosperous period of China feudal society after Han and Tang Dynasties. Science and technology, literature, art and handicrafts are highly developed, and the ceramic industry is booming. Porcelain kilns are all over the country, with strong local style, which can be summarized as "six kiln systems" and "five famous kilns". "Six Kilns System" refers to Ding Kiln System, Jun Kiln System, Yaozhou Kiln System and Cizhou Kiln System in the north, Longquan Celadon Kiln System and Jingdezhen Celadon Kiln System in the south. The "five famous kilns" are official kilns, Ru kilns, Ge kilns, Ding kilns and Jun kilns. During the Song Dynasty, the official kiln system was basically established, and the official kiln porcelain formed an artistic style different from the folk kiln. Jingdezhen, the capital of porcelain, rose in the Yuan Dynasty and is famous for its blue-and-white porcelain, glazed red porcelain and egg white glazed official porcelain.
Ming and Qing dynasties:
The Ming and Qing dynasties presented a colorful scene, and all kinds of ceramic works of art shone brilliantly. Colored porcelain, represented by blue and white porcelain, thrives: multicolored, bucket color, plain tricolor, underglaze color, enamel color, pastel color and so on. Ming and Qing colored porcelain is a masterpiece of ceramic art, full of artistic charm. The firing of colored glazed porcelain has entered a state of perfection, and the varieties of monochromatic glazes are constantly innovating: blue glaze, sacrificial red glaze, Langyao red glaze, cowpea red glaze, yellow glaze, peacock green glaze and so on. There has also been a new breakthrough in porcelain-making technology. The rotary cutter of ceramic lathe replaced the bamboo cutter to turn the blank, and the glaze blowing technology was adopted, so that the quality and quantity of porcelain were rapidly improved. Porcelain-making industry in Ming and Qing Dynasties is the peak in the history of China porcelain development, which has a great influence on China porcelain industry today.